Next James Bond film gets greenlight

Good news for fans of James Bond — MGM sucks a little less! If you have managed to skip all the ridiculousness going on at MGM, things were looking bleak for the next film in the James Bond franchise, despite the fact that the film itself was ready to go and the franchise was doing extremely well following the Daniel-Craig-led reboot. Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Away We Go) was on board to direct, and the cast including Daniel Craig and Dame Judi Dench were all confirmed to return. Then MGM had a bit of a meltdown.

$4 billion of debt may not be much compared to the American deficit, but it is enough to cripple a once successful film studio and put every property (even the successful ones) on indefinite hold. Things weren’t looking good for Bond. After all, if The Hobbit — which is part of the series of movies that earned close to $3 billion at the box office alone — couldn’t get greenlit, what chance did Bond have?

Thankfully MGM has announced that it will be filing for bankruptcy, and after fighting off a potential takeover from Carl Icahan, the restructuring will soon begin. The Hobbit was the first to receive a greenlight, and now the next installment of James Bond is also set to begin pre-production, with an eye on a November 2012 release date.

And that’s not all. According to a report from MTV, MGM is planning on releasing a new Bond film every two years. Daniel Craig is confirmed for the coming movie, and he does have a five-picture deal in place, but whether or not Mendes returns is still up in the air and will likely be down to scheduling.